📍Catherine Palace, Sadovaya Street 7, Pushkin, St Petersburg, Russia
1762 – 1796“I was born Sophie, a minor German princess in the Baltic port of Stettin, and at fourteen I was brought to Russia to marry the heir to the throne. My marriage was cold and lonely, so I learned Russian, read everything from Voltaire to Montesquieu, and made friends among the guards; in 1762 I took the throne from my husband. The great blue-and-white palace at Tsarskoye Selo, built for the Empress Elizabeth, became my summer home, and I remade it in my own taste. I hired a Scottish architect, Charles Cameron, to build me private apartments and a long colonnaded gallery where I could stroll and talk philosophy, and the jewel-like Agate Rooms above my cold baths, where I could retreat from affairs of state. My days began early: up by eight, letters in my study or on the terrace, then work, then walks in the landscaped park with my dogs. On warm evenings I rested on the hanging garden between the gallery and the Agate Rooms. Tsarskoye Selo was where I was most myself.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today